MLB’s Payroll Powerhouses Bounce Back After Summer Swoon

What a difference a week makes for MLB’s top economic and competitive powers.

The Dodgers, Mets, and Yankees, the league’s three biggest payroll spenders and scuffling through surprisingly difficult summers, each have made sizable steps in recent days toward reasserting their power and living up to the lofty expectations placed on them.

After briefly falling into second place in the National League West division for the first time since April, the Dodgers swept the archrival Padres over the weekend at home. Los Angeles, backed by a league-record luxury-tax payroll of $407 million, had been dogged by a series of injuries and on-field woes in which a nine-game division lead evaporated in the span of five weeks. 

“It’s very satisfying, considering where we were [just] four days ago,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “Just the way we ramped up the focus, the intensity.”

The Yankees, MLB’s No. 3 payroll team at $316.7 million, have won five of their last six, including a weekend sweep on the road at the Cardinals. 

The $338.7 million Mets, meanwhile, claimed wins both Saturday and Sunday over the surging Mariners. Saturday’s game included the major league debut of highly touted pitching prospect Nolan McLean, who lived up to the hype with eight strikeouts in five and a third scoreless innings. Sunday’s game, meanwhile, included an appearance by MLB commissioner Rob Manfred in the ESPN primetime broadcast of the MLB Little League Classic, in which he detailed large-scale changes contemplated by the league. 

The victories were the Mets’ first consecutive wins in three weeks.

“It feels good,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We need to start winning series. It’s been rough [and] tough for all of us.”

While the Dodgers remain the clear favorite in betting odds to win the World Series, both the Yankees and Mets improved their respective positions considerably after the recent wins. The New York clubs, however, remain behind a pack of mid- and small-market teams, including the surging Brewers.